Friday, May 15, 2015

I want to open this
posting with a definition. The Federal Funds Rate (more commonly known as
the Fed Funds Rate) is:

"...the interest rate at which depository institutions trade
federal funds (balances held at Federal Reserve Banks) with each other
overnight. When a depository institution has surplus balances in its
reserve account, it lends to other banks in need of larger balances. In simpler
terms, a bank with excess cash, which is often referred to as liquidity, will
lend to another bank that needs to quickly raise liquidity. (1) The rate that
the borrowing institution pays to the lending institution is determined between
the two banks; the weighted average rate for all of these types of negotiations
is called the effective federal funds rate.(2) The effective federal funds rate
is essentially determined by the market but is influenced by the Federal
Reserve through open market operations to reach the federal funds rate
target."

The Federal
Open Market Committee or FOMC meets eight times a year to determine the
federal funds target rate. If the FOMC believes the economy is growing
too fast and inflation pressures are inconsistent with the dual mandate of the
Federal Reserve, the Committee may set a higher federal funds rate target to
temper economic activity. In the opposing scenario, the FOMC may set a lower
federal funds rate target to spur greater economic activity. The FOMC influences
the Fed Funds Rate through open market operations or through the buying and
selling of government bonds in one of two ways:

1.)
It can raise the rate by selling government bonds which reduces liquidity
because banks have less liquidity to trade with other banks.

2.) It can
lower the rate by purchasing government bonds which increases liquidity
because banks have excess liquidity.

Here is a graphic showing what has happened to
the Fed Funds Rate since 1961 noting that the shaded areas on the graph are
recessions:

You will notice that
every time there is a recession, the FOMC acted to push interest rates down by
lowering the Fed Funds Rate as shown on this table:

In each of the seven
recessions from 1969 onward, the FOMC has lowered the Fed Funds Rate by more
than 500 basis points (5 percent) with the drop averaging 6.24 percentage
points. In each of the nine recessions from 1958 onward, the FOMC has
lowered the Fed Funds Rate by more than 50 percent (excluding the 1980
recession when the drop was only 48.7 percent) with an average drop of 70.4
percent. Right now the Fed Funds Rate sits at 0.12 percent, just above
its all-time low and roughly the level that it has been at since December 2008.
Basically, the Fed Funds Rate cannot drop any further because it is
already at the zero lower bound.

Let's look at a
historical recession time table. If you look carefully at the table,
you'll notice that, over the past six decades, recessions have occurred quite
regularly with the gap between the beginning of two concurrent recessions as
follows:

1957 to 1960 recession -
2 years 8 months

1960 to 1969 recession -
9 years 8 months

1969 to 1973 recession -
3 years 11 months

1973 to 1980 recession -
6 years 2 months

1980 to 1981 recession -
1 year 6 months

1981 to 1990 recession -
9 years

1990 to 2001 recession -
10 years 8 months

2001 to 2007 recession -
6 years 9 months

The last recession
officially ended in June 2009, putting us very nearly six years closer to the
next recession. Over the last nine recessions, the average length of time
between the beginning of one recession and the beginning of the next is 6.1 years.

When we put the entire
picture into place, we can see that it is quite clear that the Federal Reserve
has painted itself into a policy corner. When the next recession occurs, as it surely will,
the Fed cannot use its normal tactic of lowering the Fed Funds Rate. During
previous economic recoveries, monetary policymakers, like the Federal
Reserve, have been able to "replenish their ammunition" by allowing
interest rates to float upwards. Since the end of the Great Recession,
interest rates have either fallen or remained at or near generationally low
levels, meaning that the use of traditional monetary stimulus is completely
ruled out. Unlike previous recoveries, the Fed simply cannot lower the Fed Funds Rate by anything that even approaches the 5 percentage point plus drop seen during the past seven recessions.

6 comments:

I don’t think we ever left the recession. I think some numbers were manipulated to make it look like things were getting better. But other than the stock market going through the roof almost every business I get any sort of inside knowledge their sales keep going down YOY and have been almost every month. I have myself have gone from living paycheck to paycheck at 35k a year back in 2005 to now 10 years later making 65K, still living in the same place and still living paycheck to paycheck (rent did go up). I find it very hard to understand how my standard of living has been exactly the same and yet I almost make double what I did 10 years ago? I’m blessed though it has not gone down.

Thanks for a great article. I feel it is important to note that the "1980 to 1981 recession - 1 year 6 months" is a bit of a misnomer. It was a bit of a "false recession" created to crush inflation, and that is why we saw the fast bounce back into economic growth.

Reflecting back on how our economy arrived at this point is very important. Rewarding savers and placing a value on the allocation of financial assets is important. It should be noted that many Americans living today were not even born or too young to appreciate the historical ramifications of the events that took place starting in 1979.

That was when then Fed chairman Paul Volcker hiked interest rates to over 20%. The impact of higher interest rates had a massive positive impact on corralling the growth of both credit and debt acting as an crucial reset to the economy for decades to come. Below is an article delving into the importance of this event and how it relates to the skewed and distorted economic landscape of today.

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About Me

I have been an avid follower of the world's political and economic scene since the great gold rush of 1979 - 1980 when it seemed that the world's economic system was on the verge of collapse. I am most concerned about the mounting level of government debt and the lack of political will to solve the problem. Actions need to be taken sooner rather than later when demographic issues will make solutions far more difficult. As a geoscientist, I am also concerned about the world's energy future; as we reach peak cheap oil, we need to find viable long-term solutions to what will ultimately become a supply-demand imbalance.